Leicester City becoming an obsession for manager, as exhaustion takes over

Sevilla are getting tired. Winning the Europa League every season for the past three has taken it out of them. Without a squad as strong as Real Madrid, Barcelona or Atletico Madrid, they’re still in La Liga’s title battle and will hope to get past Leicester City in the Champions League.

But things are starting to creak.

Jorge Sampaoli’s men drew their last match with Alaves on Monday and face what should be a relatively straightforward home match against Leganes on Saturday. And then comes Leicester City, which may well be taking the manager’s attention.

Spanish newspaper AS say there’s an obsession building and Sevilla are increasingly regretful of not putting the tie to bed in the first leg. Leicester will have been happy to leave Spain with a 2-1 defeat and they have every chance of getting through to the next stage.

This means that despite fatigue setting in, Sampaoli will know he has to field a full strength team in Leicester, and they’ll likely have to really go for it. That presents questions about team selection against Leganes, with the club’s next La Liga match coming against Atletico Madrid.

The success of recent years is weighing on Sevilla and with a couple of months or so left of the season, Sampaoli will be hoping his squad doesn’t collapse before the finish line.